The Importance of Being Kept

Kagome looked around her new home. She was amazed at the way the dormitory was built. It was exactly like an apartment. The living room was wide and spacey with modern style furniture. Since it already had furniture and a very nice couch it caused a problem for her couch. What were they going to do with an extra couch? She decided to worry about that later. The kitchen was the most important room she wanted to check out. Kagome's major was in culinary arts. She loved to cook and wanted to be a famous chef one day and run her own restaurant.

The kitchen had all the latest equipment that she never expected to be in a dormitory, a microwave, a high tech refrigerator, a sleek double door oven, a huge dishwasher and lots of cabins. She squealed in excitement, this was better than her kitchen at home. She began thinking of all the delicious meals she could whip up when the living room door suddenly opened. Kagome walked out of the kitchen to see who it was.

A petite girl stood in the middle of the room. She gave Kagome a shy smile when she saw her. Kagome smiled back. She had never seen a human doll before, but that's exactly what the girl looked like. She couldn't have been any bigger than 5'4. She had long hair that came down to her knees and curled in ringlets at the tips. Her skin was very white as if she never saw the sun light. It was a stark contrast against her raven black hair. When Kagome got closer she could see a sprinkle of freckles across her small nose which she thought was adorable, but it was eyes that caught most of her attention. Vivid grey eyes, the color of a rainy sky stared back into hers. She had to be the prettiest and the most fragile little thing Kagome had ever seen.

"Hi, I'm Rin," she spoke softly and stretched out her small hand to shake hers.

Kagome shook it and smiled. "I'm Kagome."

"Are you a new student here?" Rin asked looking at her clothing.

"It's that obvious?" Kagome asked shaking her head.

Rin giggled.

"Does no one wear sweats here?" She stared at Rin's pretty purple summer dress and sandals.

"The guys do," Rin said.

"Figures," Kagome said. She looked around. "Do you have anything? I wanted to wait before I picked a room."

"I've already moved in," Rin said. "Actually, I think you're our new roommate. Sango and I have known each other since our freshman year, but this is our first time living in this dormitory. It's only for juniors and seniors. Isn't this place nice? All the rooms are identical to each other so that's why we went on and moved in. I hope you didn't mind. We saw you had already moved your things in one of them."

"No, I didn't mind, I was just waiting to see if anyone had wanted it before I started unpacking," Kagome said when someone else suddenly entered the room.

She found herself staring at the most beautiful girl she'd ever seen. She was an inch taller than Kagome's 5'7 height. She had flawless golden skin and long thick black hair which she had in a ponytail. Her dark eyes twinkled with liveliness as she smiled at Kagome.

"You must be our new roomie. I'm Sango!"

"Kagome," she said. She couldn't believe it, both of her roommates were gorgeous in their own way. She felt like a plain jane standing between them.

"Welcome Kagome. I hope you like it here. I'm more than willing to show you around if you need help."

"Thank you," Kagome said.

"Be right back!" Sango said and walked into the hallway. "Hey be careful with that!" She yelled.

"She has that affect on everyone," Rin said as she watched Kagome stare at Sango. "She's one of the lead singers at the club here and she's very popular.

"There's a club on campus?" Kagome asked surprised.

Rin nodded. "She'll probably ask you to go tonight."

They watched as Sango came back in directing two guys who were hauling a 44 inch flat screen tv into the room. "Sit it right over here," Sango pointed to the wall in front of them.

Kagome's mouth dropped open.

Sango turned to the two girls noticing their surprised expressions. "What do you think…too much?"

"I think it's perfect," Rin said clasping her hands together in excitement. "We can have movie night twice a month and invite all our friends."

Kagome wasn't sure about the idea since she didn't have friends to invite. She hoped it wouldn't be awkward for her.

"What's this?" Sango asked as she watched the guys try to maneuver the tv around Kagome's couch.

"Sorry, I didn't know if they gave us furniture for the living room so I brought my own to contribute," Kagome said still feeling out of place around the two beautiful girls.

"Aww how cute," Sango said. Rin nodded in agreement. "Well, perhaps we can put it in your room. We'll have a place to sit when we hang out with you."

Kagome smiled as Sango turned around and ordered the guys to move the couch. Kagome ran to her room and quickly opened the door.

She spent the next three hours with her new roommates getting to know them as they helped her unpack her things. Apparently they had already moved in the day before. She found out that they were all juniors. Sango was majoring in youkai archeology and history. Her family had been archeologists and she wanted to follow in their footsteps. She had extensive knowledge that Kagome thought would be helpful since she didn't know much about youkai. Sango was energetic, full of life and had a smile that was contagious. Kagome didn't know if she'd be able to keep up with her. Rin was quiet, a little shy, but started to warm up to Kagome as the hours passed. Rin majored in Music and from Sango's bragging she was quite good with the violin and piano. When Kagome told them she majored in culinary arts both girls grinned and started to ask her questions about cooking meals on Sunday. "If you can cook, then you're going to be the most popular girl in this dormitory," Sango told her. "The guys are always hungry around here."

Rin volunteered to help Kagome put up her drapes when Sango stepped out the room to get them sodas. Kagome was a little hesitant because of Rin's size, but Rin didn't let that stop her. They got the drapes up right before Rin lost her balance on the stool she was standing, Kagome tried to catch her but lost her balance also and grabbed the curtain. There was a loud rip and both went tumbling to the floor with the curtain falling down on top of them. Sango came back to find two laughing lumps moving underneath the drapes. She shook her head and laughed.

Luckily Kagome had an extra pair of drapes in which Sango volunteered to hang up herself. Kagome left an hour later to buy books for her classes. She was happy she had registered online for them, the thought of spending most of the day standing in line made her gag. The campus was far too beautiful to not want to explore as soon as she got her books. She walked down the long steps outside and wondered how she was going to build the stamina to tackle those stairs coming and going every day. When she finally got to the bottom, she looked up. Yep, her dormitory was definitely sitting on a very high hill. She was going to be climbing Mount Everest every day. Smiling at her own joke, she turned around to walk away and ran smack into a very hard chest. Caught off guard she fell backwards on her butt. The sound of snickering struck her ears and she looked up completely offended by the rude behavior. What she saw made her anger disappear and be replaced by fear.

A very tall and extremely gorgeous youkai stood over her body peering down at her. She could tell he was not human by the strange color of his eyes and the pointed tips of his ears. There were marking on his face and forehead, three streaks of purple and gold. He stood as if he was made from royalty and he looked down his nose at her as if she was nothing but a bug he was about to step on. Those golden eyes were the same as Inuyasha's except they were cold as ice. There was a certain danger about this youkai that made Kagome shiver slightly. He didn't bother to help her up. Instead he watched her with deadly silence as she stood up and stumbled to get out of his way. Those eyes never left her as she slowly moved around him. His hair was white as snow, just like Inuyasha's. It hung down to his waist and blew softly in the wind. If Kagome hadn't been so frightened of him, she would have blushed after bumping into such a handsome youkai, but the way he was watching her as if he was trying to make up his mind if he should kill her or not made her forget all about being attracted to him. There were two other guys with him standing behind him, just as handsome, just as regal and very quiet. They were also staring at her, but not as harshly as their leader. One had long black hair with black and blue streaks on his cheeks. He stared at Kagome with beautiful blue eyes. The other one had golden hair the color of the sun and light blue eyes. There were gold and light blue streaks on his cheeks. He looked like a bronze god. They all looked like gods standing before her.

Kagome thought she would be able to escape in one piece as she finally made it around them when one of them spoke to her in a soft yet deadly voice. "Where is Rin?" The question was more of a demand.

She jumped and froze, his voice seemed to slice through the wind and cut through her body. She turned around slowly to look at the one who had spoke to her, but they were all staring at her. She stared at the one that was once again in front of the other two and assumed it had been the dangerous one that looked like Inuyasha.

"How do you know I was with Rin?" She asked noticing her voice shook slightly.

"Her scent is all over you," the one with the black hair spoke. He stared at her suspiciously.

"I'm her roommate," Kagome said quickly hoping that would stop whatever they were thinking she had done to Rin. "She's in the dormitory!"

Both the guys turned to the one in front of them.

"She also has your brother's scent on her," the one with the golden hair said.

"She looks like Kikyo," the one with the black hair said.

The white hair god stared at her for a few minutes longer then turned around and walked away. The others followed. The golden-haired one turn to look back at her and winked giving her a flirtatious smile.

Kagome sighed with relief and watched them practically float up the steps. So, the white-haired one was Inuyasha's brother, after all, wow what a difference, Kagome thought. They were the most intimidating youkai she'd ever met and the rudest. "Assholes," she mumbled.

They all stopped at once. Kagome gasped and took off running as fast as she could.

She didn't stop until she reached the student union and was safely inside the building. She turned around to see if they had followed her and sighed in relief when she didn't see them. She realized she would have to be very careful here. The student union was huge and packed with students. Kagome was grateful that the bookstore was located at the front; otherwise, she would have gotten lost roaming around the building alone. Her mother had given her $600 for books, from her previous experience at community college it had to be more than enough money to get the books she needed. It wasn't. After she'd gotten her books, stood in line and had them rung up at the cash register, her total came to $1200.

Kagome stared at the cashier in shock. She had already handed the cashier the $600 her mother had given her.

The cashier stared back at her. "Would you like the rest charged to your credit card?"

Kagome shook her head. "No, this is all I have."

"You don't have enough?" The cashier looked at her with disdain. It was as if Kagome had suddenly stopped being a human in her eyes.

Kagome could hear whispers and mocking laughter behind her. She had never been so embarrassed in her life as she watched the cashier take off half the books she had rung up.

"What's wrong, financial aid stop giving them enough money to buy their books?" She heard someone say.

"Really, why do they even waste our time if they can't afford to go this school?" Someone else said.

Kagome held her head up high even as tears began to form in her eyes. The people behind her were getting restless and the cashier was giving her angry looks as she took the books off one by one.

"There you are! Sorry I'm late Kagome. I got held back helping a certain person with a couch," Inuyasha suddenly appeared out of nowhere. He walked up to her and winked at her.

Kagome stared at him in complete shock as he looked at the total, dug into his pockets, pulled out his wallet and started counting out hundred dollar bills. "Thanks for letting me borrow the money. I couldn't make it to the ATM machine in time when I asked for it."

Kagome could only stare at him not knowing what to say. It had suddenly gotten very quiet in the room.

"You know each other?" The cashier asked.

"Ofcourse, she's Kikyo's cousin," Inuyasha said.

There was a loud gasp in the room and whispers began again. "Oh god, I hope she didn't hear us," someone said.

"Let's hope Kikyo doesn't find out, it was an honest mistake."

The cashier smiled at Kagome as she took Inuyasha's money. "I apologize for my behavior, Kagome. Please, why don't you pick out a book for free. It's on me."

"Three books would be nice," Inuyasha said.

"Three books, ofcourse. They're yours for free. Here's three hundred back, keep your money and this won't be mentioned around Kikyo okay?" The cashier stared at Kagome looking slightly pale.

"Sure, I'll let it pass," Kagome finally said.

The cashier looked relieved. Inuyasha took the book bag Kagome had been carrying and stuffed her books in it. He swung it over his shoulder and took Kagome's hand. Everyone watched them walk out together.

Kagome waited until they were outside the building to thank Inuyasha. "How did you? Where did you? Never mind, thank you so much."

Inuyasha laughed. "I was with some friends when I saw you run into the building. You looked like someone was chasing after you. I was watching you to make sure everything was okay. Besides, don't thank me, I enjoyed making a fool out of them. I can't stand snobby rich bitches," Inuyasha laughed. "They think the entire world revolves around them, believe me I dated your cousin so I know what I'm talking about."

Kagome laughed.

"Hey," Inuyasha said becoming serious. He stopped walking and stared into Kagome's eyes. "Don't ever let any of these snobs make you cry. It just gives them more power over you."

Kagome nodded wondering how he knew she was about to cry. She reached into her pocket and handed him the three hundred dollars.

"Keep it," he said.

She blinked. "I'm not a charity case," she said becoming slightly angry. "You don't have to feel sorry for me."

Inuyasha grinned. "I like you, but consider it your money."

"I'm not taking your money, you've done enough for me," Kagome stuffed it in his pocket before he could stop her.

Inuyasha only grinned. It was rare that a girl ever refused money from him. Kagome was definitely not like the girls here.

"And I'll figure out a way to pay you back the rest, I know I'll get a job!"

"Kagome, just take it as a gift," Inuyasha said. "Six hundred dollars is just change to me it's like spending a dollar in a vending machine. I don't need it and I won't miss it and I really think you may need it more than I do."

"I don't need your help!" Kagome shouted back stubbornly. She suddenly realized what she did and looked down. She didn't see Inuyasha slip the money in her backpack. "I'm sorry, you've been so nice to me and all I can do is be a jerk. I just hate it when people think I can't make it on my own. I guess they really did get to me back there."

"Don't worry. I get it," Inuyasha said. "I don't like people to help me either. It's all about independence, but don't feel you have to prove anything around me, Kagome."

"Why are you being so nice to me?" Kagome asked looking back up at him.

Inuyasha shrugged. "Don't know, you seem like a nice girl and that's very rare here. Plus, you're new and alone here and after seeing the way Kikyo treated you, I think I'll stick around just to make sure you're okay."

Kagome blushed and looked away. Inuyasha watched her for a few minutes. He wondered why he felt the need to protect her, he didn't even know the girl, but the little he did know he liked very much. She was so different from Kikyo and any other girl he'd met. Well, no there were two other girls he liked as friends.

"Have you met your roommates, yet?" Inuyasha asked.

Kagome turned back to him. "Yeah, they're really nice."

"I know," Inuyasha said. "Sango and Rin right?"

"How did you know?"

"Kikyo told me. I'm happy you're staying with them. They're good people."

"I also met your brother and his friends when I was leaving the dormitory. Actually, they were the ones I was running away from," Kagome laughed.

Inuyasha frowned. "What do you mean? You met Sesshoumaru and why were you running from them? Did he threaten you?"

Kagome was taken aback by the anger in Inuyasha's voice. She hadn't expected him to be concern. "Well not really. They're just…scary. He wanted to know where Rin was."

"My brother is an arrogant asshole. He tends to scare everyone except me. He thinks he owns this place just like Kikyo."

"That's why I was running, I called him an asshole."

Inuyasha stared at her and suddenly burst out laughing. People stopped walking and watched them curiously.

"You know Kagome, I think I'm going to keep you."